“You will take over and coach the Under-11 soccer team”, I was told as a new teacher in 1995.

Truth be told, I had never been a good soccer player as my body-kinesthetic intelligence is very low. As a teacher taking over the team, I also found out that my school’s soccer team had been trashed 3-0, 5-0 and 8-0 the year before. It had a terrible soccer culture. But fast forward a year, I brought this team to the Top 8 in the National Finals. We won all the District Level matches and this story was captured in

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My Relator operates in 2 extremes: being ever ready to befriend someone, and also ever ready to “unfriend” someone. Relator has a very sharp radar to detect authenticity, genuineness, and trustworthiness. It allows me to build a deep and trusting relationship with a stranger when my radar is getting all the positive signals. On the other hand, the Relator in me is sensitive to pick up signals when ‘this person won’t go far together’, I would then classify this person as part of ‘surface relationships’

The ‘Through Thick & Thin’ category may not have a long list but this is

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Today, I was walking along a small lane and witnessed a possibility of two cars colliding. The word “crisis” loomed before me. I instinctively stretched out my hands, stared at the drivers and ‘commanded’ the cars according to what I want. I would think that if there were two other cars unwilling to give way, resulting in a stalemate situation, I would have also stepped out to ‘command and control’ the situation.

My Command is the most alive during a crisis and stalemate situation. My Command theme is usually manifested in 4 phases:

1. Arise to the Challenge
2. Assure the Crowd
3. Activate a Course
4. Advance

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The tension was building up between my wife and I with regards to the way we wanted to develop our son. Yew Ann has Global Developmental Delay (GDD). He crawled at his 15th month (instead of 6-8 months) and walked at his 28th month (instead of 10-15 months).

One day, I caught myself getting frustrated with my wife for holding Yew Ann’s hand when they were walking in front of me. I insisted that she should let go so that Yew Ann could be independent at a faster rate since he was already much slower than his peers.

“Hee Guan,

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Insights from Strengths Coach Tan Hee Guan

In May 2011, Don Clifton’s intern Rick Yamamoto ignited a little fire in my cognitive domain as a small group of us attended ‘StrengthsFinder for Halftimers’. After Rick’s coaching, I went on to spread this little fire to some friends and companies.

This little fire was rekindled as I became the Asia pioneering batch of Certified Strengths Coach in 2013. But the Baptism of StrengthsFIRE came only in 2014 during my conflict resolution with my wife. When Strengths transform my marriage, I can no longer coach with just cognitive understand of Strengths, I co-found

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Perfecting Self-Discovery with StrengthsFinder

At the beginning of every Strengths Discovery Workshop, after reading their StrengthsFinder reports, participants usually indicate the following:

• 15% – “not like me”
• 35% – “a little like me”
• 30% – “quite like me”
• 20% – “totally describes me”

By the end of the sessions however, with precise explanation & interview, most people will gravitate towards

• 0% – “not like me”
• 5% – “a little like me”
• 35% – “quite like me”
• 60% – “totally describes me”

I’ve discovered that the remaining 5% are uncertain, usually due to a combination of factors:

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Starting Right with Strengths I first encountered StrengthsFinder in 2012 when I attended a group coaching session with Half-Time Asia. I had many queries that the coach could not answer. That resulted in a pause in my quest for some time. Here I learned that many people (like me) who possess the #analytical talent theme, often require precise & reliable technical answers in order to start right with StrengthsFinder. Coach Certification & Development

Much as my interest was piqued (#learner), it was only 2 years later that I had access to real answers through the Accelerated Strengths Coaching Course. It provided

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16 Million StrengthsFinder Users

I had the privilege of being invited to a select group of certified StrengthsFinder Coaches in Singapore to meet with Gallup CEO Jim Clifton. It was an exciting time learning & contributing to the Strengths movement. After all, it was only recently that we reached the milestone of 16 million StrengthsFinder users. My team and me at StrengthsTransform™ had the privilege of contributing 9,000 to that number!

Empowering Strengths Coaches

However it was apt that Jim mentioned that henceforth, the challenge was not about just about StrengthsFinder or Positive Psychology. Rather the upcoming movement was

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Over the weekend, I had the privilege to have a conversation with Mavis Lee, one of our newly certified StrengthsTransform™ Youth Developers, to get to know how knowing her Strengths has changed the way she approaches life. Her life journey was tremendously inspiring and I wish to share it with the world, to empower youths who are looking to boost their self-esteem and motivation.

“Now all I want to do is to focus on developing my talent themes, unleash my true potential and be my own queen… and help people to do the same.”

What are your top 5 StrengthsFinder® talent themes? My top

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“Will an AAA battery ever run out?” The talent theme portrait of an undergraduate who worked 2 jobs and served as Captain of a Boys’ Brigade Company while providing for his family en route to achieving an honours degree. “I will rather lose my life than waste it.”

I’ve always been involved in youth development activities. But until I discovered StrengthsFinder, I did not understand my drive nor my motivation. Only through StrengthsTransform™ Coaching did I realize that I was actually functioning at my unique best as an Educator.

Why StrengthsFinder?

StrengthsFinder facilitates discovery & application of my talents in all areas of my life. To me, strengths-coaching tells us just how

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